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Schroder is robbing the state and still is exploiting Hitler's concordat.

Article Excerpt
Introduction

Many readers of the American Atheist magazine know about the case of the German Atheist Dr. Peter Nittmann. Although Dr. Nittmann left the church more than 25 years ago, the German state, in breach of the German constitution which guarantees equal treatment (Article 3) and religious freedom (Article 4) for all, deducted an enforced church tax of around $100 a month from his already meager unemployment benefit when he had become unemployed after being in work for a long time, and that for the benefit of the two major churches in Germany, who are massively privileged and immensely rich!

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In February 2002, Dr. Nittmann filed a lawsuit for the return of the stolen money. The German Atheist organization Bund gegen Anpassung (Alliance against Conformity--www.bund-gegen-anpassung.com) publicized the case worldwide, meaning that also abroad the general public discovered for the first time what the German press had been covering up for years: millions of unemployed non-church members in Germany have had church tax deducted from their unemployment benefit. The money stolen in this way, for the benefit of the two major German churches, already amounted to billions of dollars; numerous lawsuits filed by isolated victims had been dismissed without the public knowing anything about it!

The German state makes use of the 1933 concordat between Hitler and the pope in carrying out this shameful tax theft on the poorest and weakest of German Atheists--and this concordat still applies today. In it, the church received the express guarantee that it can have its membership fees collected by the state in the form of a tax, known as the church tax.

The case of Dr. Nittmann was reported on at the 2003 National Convention of the American Atheists in Chicago by Dr. Ulrike Tietze of the Alliance against Conformity (see her talk entitled "Hitler's Legacy: Plundering German Atheists to Benefit the Pope" in American Atheist magazine, Summer 2003). Immediately, many members of the American Atheists sent protests to the German judiciary and government--as did Atheists and free thinkers from every continent. As a result, the German judiciary were no longer able to allow Dr. Nittmann's explosive lawsuit to gather dust in a drawer somewhere. No less than three (!) instances had dismissed the claim up to the summer of 2004. After this numbing game of 'instance ping-pong', the case is now up before the highest German court, the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht).

This means that the case has entered its decisive phase. The German judiciary are relying on international protest tiring out due to the length of time being taken. For this reason we would ask you to renew the protests of the American Atheists and support Dr. Nittmann's case by writing protest letters to:

Federal Constitutional Court

Bundesverfassungsgericht

Schlossbezirk 3

D-76131 Karlsruhe

Germany

Fax: 0049 721 9101-382

Email: bverfg@bundesverfassungsgericht.de

Don't forget: File No 1 BvR 952/04, Case of Dr. Nittmann. Please send copies to:

Federal Chancellor Mr. Gerhard Schroder,

Bundeskanzleramt, Willy-Brandt-Str. 1, D-10557 Berlin, Germany;

Fax: 0049 30 4000-1818, -1819;

E-mail: bundeskanzler@bundeskanzler.de

Bund gegen Anpassung, Post Box 254, D-79002 Freiburg, Germany;

Fax: 0049 761 502 247;

E-mail: mail@bund-gegen-anpassung@com

Demand that the validity of the German constitution be restored, Dr. Nittmann's claim be sustained, and all unemployed non-church members be repaid the money illegally deducted from their unemployment benefit as church tax in full!

The international protests have already produced their effects: The German government has meanwhile abolished the enforced church tax for unemployed non-church members who become unemployed since 1 January 2005! Though on that day a comprehensive set of laws (called, for particular reasons, 'Hartz III' and 'Hartz IV') was introduced in Germany which drastically curtails unemployment...

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